Prof M Pourkashanian, Dr G Konstantopoulos, Dr CR Jones, Dr M Walker
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
The Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures focuses on advancing sustainability research and connecting it with the policy debate around how humans can live in a more sustainable way.
grantham.sheffield.ac.uk
We are recruiting Scholars who will combine outstanding intellect with a strong commitment to public engagement, leadership and action. These ambitious individuals will complete interdisciplinary PhD research projects to help solve the challenges of sustainability. They will be supported by the Centre through a unique training programme, designed to equip them with the skills to become policy advocates and leaders in sustainability matters.
Your application for this studentship should be accompanied by a CV and a 200 word supporting statement. Your statement should outline your aspirations and motivation for studying in the Grantham Centre, outlining any relevant experience.
Please select ’Standard PhD’ and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Fill in the title of your desired project and the name(s) of the supervisors’. The starting date of the PhD will be the start of the next academic year - 1 Oct 2017. The ’Funding stage’ on the form will be ’project studentship’.
Recent studies estimate that close to two-thirds of the world’s population live in rural areas and around 1.3 Billion people, mainly living in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, have little or no access to electricity.
As an alternative to conventional large-scale electricity grid infrastructure is the use of off-grid integrated renewable energy systems (IRES) coupled with community scale microgrids, which can offer low-carbon electricity supply using locally available renewable resources.
Biogas, produced though anaerobic digestion from local biomass resources which are abundant across much of the global south, can play a role in electrification whilst delivering additional benefits such as improved indoor air quality, public health and sanitation, reduced gender inequality and promotion of sustainable agriculture.
This PhD project will investigate the design, operation, implementation and long-term community acceptance of rural electrification systems using biogas and other renewable technologies and will involve both modelling and field-based investigation.
The project will involve an interdisciplinary approach and would seek to understand the interrelated criteria for successful IRES based energy projects. For example: (1) appropriateness of technology and optimised system scaling, (2) quantification of the electrical demand and its links to current and future behaviours, (3) understating criteria for community uptake and long-term acceptance of the technology and, (4) the provision of a dependable electrical supply by robust control of the microgrid and component energy systems.
Objectives:
1. Investigation and assessment of renewable resource availability in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, in areas where biogas based rural electrification projects could be feasible.
2. Development of electricity demand prediction tools based on community type, economic activity, population and wealth, including how demand changes over time e.g. based on changing attitudes or increased economic activity.
3. Optimisation of microgrid operation, component scaling and reduction in energy storage, using modelling tools, based on a variety of resource availability and electrical demand scenarios.
4. Design of advanced hierarchical control strategies for high quality electricity distribution across a variety of timescales.
5.Investigation of the key factors that promote acceptance or rejection of electrification in non-electrified communities
Through the existing international collaboration between the University of Sheffield and Visva Bharati in India, the work will benefit from access to a rural electrification site that is currently powering 45 households across two Indian villages. The student will be expected to travel to India in order to perform technical and social field studies on both this system as well as other non-electrified villages nearby.
*All academic enquiries should be sent to Dr Mark Walker, [Email Address Removed].*
Key words:
Rural electrification, energy access, anaerobic digestion, biogas, microgrid, biomass, renewable energy
Funding Notes
This four year studentship will be fully funded at Home/EU or international rates.
Support for travel and consumables (RTSG) will also be made available at standard rate of £2,627 per annum, with an additional one-off allowance of £1,000 for a computer in the first year. Students will receive an annual stipend of £17,336. Applications should be received and complete by Thursday 23rd February 2017.
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